#steven paneccasio

[thephotoregistry]

From Hoodoo

Steven Paneccasio

[wherethespiritmeetstheboneposts]

Steven Paneccasio

[thephotoregistry]

From Hoodoo

Steven Paneccasio

[wherethespiritmeetstheboneposts]

Steven Paneccasio

[wherethespiritmeetstheboneposts]

Steven Paneccasio

[wherethespiritmeetstheboneposts]

Steven Paneccasio

[thisissausage-blog]

A brief chat with Steven Paneccasio, the first recipient of the TIS books Essential Non-essentials Grant

How did you get into teaching? Are there any particular educators who inspired you?

So many educators have inspired me - and that's where my desire to teach came from. In undergrad, at SUNY Purchase it was Bob Kozma, Jo Ann Walters, Jed Devine, and Sergio Fernandez. And in graduate school at MassArt: Laura McPhee, Abe Morell, and Nick Nixon. I think about something each one of them has taught me almost every day and that's the sort of impact I wish to have on my students. That's where my desire to teach came from, how I actually got into to teaching is another story. 

One of the reasons I wanted to go to MassArt was because they have a program where the graduate students can elect to co-teach an undergraduate, non-majors class. My dear friend Chelsea Welsh and I signed up to teach "Intro to Color Photography." It was a big challenge that involved a weekly pre-class phone conversation telling each other that "everything is going to work out just fine." Later, it was Chelsea who encouraged me to apply for an adjunct teaching position at her alma mater, Bowling Green State University. Within a year I packed up my car to move out to Ohio. I lasted only a semester out there, and ultimately it was love brought me back to New York. Upon my return, Jo Ann Walters asked if I'd be interested in teaching at Purchase and I accepted; everything came around full circle.

Tell us a little about your project.

This evolving body of work represents an attempt to transform the quotidian using light and paper – still life united on a purely photographic plane. Careful choices as to palette, light, and aperture lend the physical properties of everyday objects an otherworldly aspect. The identity of a common object becomes suspect and the laws of gravity have shifted. The photographs are scratched, cut, rephotographed. They survive several generations to become new manifestations of themselves. New spaces are invented according to my own “house rules.”

Any thoughts on how you might use the grant funds?

The funds will make it easier for me to make pictures! Whether it's film, paper, paying off a new lens, it will definitely go to good use.

We congratulate Steven, as well as the educators who inspired him along the way.

[thisissausage-blog]

And the recipient of the very first TIS books Essential Non-essentials Grant is . . .

Steven Paneccasio, who teaches at SUNY Purchase. Keep an eye out in the next few days for a short interview with Steven - we’ll talk about his work as an educator and a practicing photographer. 

Our sincere thanks to everyone who applied. The submitted work was uniformly excellent, and the selection process was arduous. The Grant will be back in the Fall semester, so stay tuned.